Savour Wholesome Family Meals with HelloFresh!

“Mom/Dad! What’s for dinner?” This is not the question we want to tackle after a busy day. There are times my other half and I have no idea what to make and end up settling for a Junk Food Night that is easy to prepare or ordering out. HelloFresh asked us if they could lend us a hand by giving a week’s worth of meals (3 meals in total) to see if their subscription boxes service would be a good fit for our family.

HelloFresh logo

HelloFresh wants is to take the planning, shopping and hassle out of making wholesome home-cooked meals families can enjoy! Everything needed to put a meal together is included in each box and can be found on their helpful app. All of the instructions are laid out with the meal ordered, and the ingredients are locally sourced. HelloFresh has three different plans to choose from to suit the needs of a family: Family Plan, Pronto Plan and Veggie Plan.

I had the pleasure to meet Irene Ngo, Head of Culinary for HelloFresh while she was in Ottawa. She spoke about HelloFresh and I had the chance to taste one of the meals available for families to make and enjoy. We were served their Glazed Chicken Teriyaki meal and it was fabulous! I could not wait for my package to arrive.

I received the following three meals from HelloFresh from their Family Plan of meals to review:

Gremolata-Crusted Cod

Smoky Sloppy Joes

Glazed Teriyaki Chicken

The shipping packaging was impressive. The exterior box was thick and was lined with aluminum to keep the ingredients for my meals cool while being transported. There was also a divider that separated the meat and fish from the other item to prevent contamination. The inner boxes on the upper level were stocked well with seasonal produce. The meat and fish were in sealed packages and surrounded with ice packs. These touches made it easy to put away in the fridge or around the kitchen. The packaging folded up easily for recycling.

HelloFresh Meal Plan box with produce and recipe instruction card

Our HelloFresh meals could not have come a better time. My family became sick, so it was hard for us to have to go out to get what we needed for all of our meals and prepare it every night. Each of the meals we received promised that it would take about 30 minutes from the first chop to the plate.

When making each of these meals, I prepared them using both the provided instruction cards and the directions found in the HelloFresh App to see how helpful each method was to use. I also wanted to see if there were any discrepancies between each of these methods.

All three of these meals were easy to prepare. The instructions were really easy to follow and I like that there were photos showing the steps so you have a visual to reference while cooking. I also like that some of the meals allowed for some substitutions to be made to put your own fresh or spicy spin on a dish. I also enjoyed using the timer on the HelloFresh app to help me keep an eye on the time during certain steps of each meal. Making these meals also allowed for our family to have some fun in the kitchen.

Don’t be fooled by the size of the meat packages! We thought we were going to be in a bit of hot water when we saw them. They were small, and we were scratching our heads about how to add to these meals if they did not yield enough to feed our family. Once they were opened and in the pan, we were surprised to see that there was more than enough meat to fill our tummies!

Once each meal was complete, we were excited to taste them, then delighted with the flavours we were experiencing. Each dish we had had its own characteristic so we were not eating the same kind of meal every time. The Gremolata-Crusted Cod was a clean and classic meal , and the dipping sauce made this dish sing.

Gremolata-Crusted Cod meal plated

The Smoky Sloppy Joes meal got rave reviews from my younger children.

Smoky Sloppy Joe and salad meal plated

The Glazed Teriyaki Chicken was a hit with the older members of our family.

Glazed Teriyaki Chicken meal plated

There was one issue I found when preparing these packaged meals from Hello Fresh. I found there were differences in the instructions given on the menu cards versus those shared on the app. On their own, the directions were easy to follow, but when put together, some of the steps are not in order, so it could be a bit confusing. I also found that making the meals took a little longer to complete. All of my meals had an average time of 30 minutes to complete. All of my meals took an average of 45 minutes to prepare. It may be due to my slow chopping skills, but it took longer for me to complete.

My family became huge fans of HellowFresh! Our package shipped quickly and kept our food cool and fresh. The directions were easy to follow. I had a lot of fun using the HelloFresh app to look at recipes and to assist in timing parts of my dishes. The best part had to be tucking in to savour each of these wholesome meals without having to plan it! Each dish was a delight to taste.

Disclaimer: I received products from HelloFresh in order to conduct this review. The views I shared are my own.

A HelloFresh Giveaway!

HelloFresh Family Plan meal boxes and Kung Pao Mushroom meal plated

Want a bit of a break from planning a meal for your family? HelloFresh would like to give one Ottawa Mommy Club follower one Family Plan meal to your family!

The ARV of this prize package is $129.99!

This giveaway is open to Canadian residents and ends at 11:59 EDT on March 24, 2017.

Good luck!

Rules: Open to Canadian residents 18 +. You have 48 hours to reply by email once you are notified as the winner. If you don’t, we will draw another entry. Prize is non-transferable. No substitution or cash equivalent of prizes is permitted. The selected winner must correctly answer a mathematical question in order to win the prize mentioned above. The Ottawa Mommy Club is not responsible for prize fulfillment and for the delivery/shipment of the prize(s) mentioned above. For our complete set of rules, please click here.

My name is Lian Wright. Born in Toronto, I came to Ottawa as a student to study Political Science at Carleton University, and came away with an Honours Degree, and decided to stay. I'm a huge sports fan, have a love of reading, and like experiencing new things whenever I can. I am now a mother of three children (11, 1 and 7 months old) and am kept constantly on my toes.
My blog, Pieces of Me, is my way of sharing what I have enjoyed and encountered in my life so far as a mother. So far, being a mom has had it's expected ups and downs, but that's what makes being a parent so fulfilling for me. I've loved and learned from what's happened so far, and I can't wait to see what's in store for me next. I hope you enjoy the journey with me!

Glazed Teriyaki Chicken caught my eye. I am not sure if its available in my area (I suspect not) but if I won I’d want my daughter to have this as she moved in Feb to ON (AND I WORRY, OMG I cried for a week, even though she moved before for school but SHE MOVED TO ANOTHER PROVINCE) and today I am having more probs with that then usual…guess I am just home sick for her (yes, less then a month gone)